The problem with a device that tries to do everything, is that often it doesn't do enough of it right.
This device has three main functions:
1) Its a TV.
2) Its a computer monitor.
3) Its an iPhone accessory - charger/screen/speakers.
The reason I bought this TV is because it works with the iPhone. Yes, thats what won me over. Its a fair price for a TV, and then the iPod/iPhone connect was really a bonus. So I bought it.
Ipod/Iphone usage:
You can play movies, songs, and pictures you already have on your iPod. That is, anything you would view through iTunes. However. You can not use this product to view any video that is delivered through an App. For example, Hulu Plus OR Netflix video streaming, which is a way that I increasingly watch video. Now, you could buy a composite cable adapter and get the video out of your iPod that way, but you could do that with ANY TV.
Apple Composite AV Cable I haven't tried it, but I found that as I was looking for a way around this problem with this product. Interestingly, you can get the streaming audio from netflix or Hulu, but the screen blanks out with a message that the iphone is plugged in so you can't see the video. This reduced the usefulness of this TV significantly, at least for me.
In addition, for wall mounting purposes, I ran into other problems. I was going to mount it on the wall, and then have some equipment underneath the TV. ALL the plugs go straight into the back, that is, they are perpendicular to the TV. Just like most old-school stereo equipment. Most LCD TVs have the plugs go "down" so you can mount the TV to the wall easier. But all the plugs - ipod, VGA, Composite, they ALL stick straight out the back, including the ipod base plug which was the whole reason I bought it. I was going to wall mount this unit in the kitchen but thats more or less "out", there would be a lot of strain on any cables connected. The VGA cable in particular sticks pretty far out. Every cable will have a right angle bend as it touches the wall, which will eventually create a short. This is why most other TVs have downward angled plugs. So its not very good for wall mounting in my opinion.
So I decided that I still liked the iPod/iPhone perk enough to keep it as a computer monitor, and it could charge my iphone and play music as I worked (cool, huh). But as a computer monitor I've had some issues. Some deficiencies I've run across:
1) The computer monitor setup is mostly manual. You will have to go into the TV settings and "tell" the TV what resolution your computer is running at. The three resolutions available are 1024x768, 1366x768, and 1280x768. Thats fine for geeky me but for someone who expects it to plug and play ... they will be disappointed. It will be especially confusing if your computer is not set to one of those three resolutions, because your screen will look awful and you'll wonder why the monitor doesn't auto-correct (as so many good quality monitors do these days). Setting the horizontal and vertial is also up to you. Then there is a manual setting for the dot clock and the clock phase. I don't know what these are, but I'm hoping that one of them will fix a problem i have where pixels in the middle of the screen are sharp and pixels near the corner are fuzzy. Wish me luck.
2) The included "stand" makes the TV very "low" on the table. Its MUCH lower than other TVs and LCD monitors I've used. I had to put it on a old monitor stand I was going to throw out (similar to this one:
Fellowes Monitor Riser 91712. Otherwise its not ergonomic enough. And the base does not tilt. In short, the included stand is very disappointing. So now I feel its not good for table mounting OR wall mounting.
3) You have to hit the power button to turn the monitor back on each time your computer sleeps. I'll keep looking for a solution to this but its not a good out-of-the-box default.
4) You cannot listen to your ipod through the TV while its charging, while working on your PC. When you start the ipod you can control your ipod using the remote control (cool) but once you get some music playing you can't use the TV screen to do stuff for your laptop. The screen remains permanently in use as a large ipod controller. Now, I know that I could just run itunes or pandora on my laptop and hear music through the TV, but my point is that the ways you can use your ipod with this tv are really, really limited.
Here is another little annoyance: When I am using this screen as a TV or a computer monitor, and I plug in my iPhone the screen goes black and it goes to iPhone control. I had to pick up the remote and hit "exit" to get back to typing this review. So, whether you are watching TV, or using your PC, and you want to just plug in your iphone and charge it you will cut your TV program or your laptop out. I understand WHY this happens. Its because the TV can't know when you just want to charge and when you want to listen to music. It would have been "handy" to have a button on the included charge base that said "exit" just like on the remote. You could then plug in your phone and hit the exit button and only have a momentary black flash.
Overall I think the TV is "fine". By adding an iPod dock they have made it much more complicated. I'm sure a future version of this product will be 5 star excellence. But for now the little complications have created too much trouble for the designers of this product, which results in a lot of inconsistencies for the end user.
My top three complaints for this item:
1) iphone/ipod usage is limited to a few basic functions that can only be performed in a few very basic ways.
2) screen sharpness seems to vary, sharp in the middle and fuzzy in the corners. This is not noticable when you are watching TV but when you've got a screen full of text (like when I'm writing this review with it as my monitor) then its really obvious. I'm trying to fix this by twiddling with settings.
3) I think the base is insufficient and the sockets on the back are not optimal for wall mounting.
I don't think its a complete waste, I just expected it to work better.